


Midons

by DrJekyl



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Anarchist Makeouts, F/F, Homeworld is Horrible, I have lots of feelings about these two ok?, Pre-Series, pearl and rose have different perspectives on dealing with diamonds, pearl is better at giving hugs than she thinks she is, rebellion era, slight leak spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 16:49:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9246206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrJekyl/pseuds/DrJekyl
Summary: Sometimes, Rose is the one that needs comforting.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheBlindBandit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlindBandit/gifts).



> ...because we all need more anarchist makeouts in our lives.
> 
> Very slight, blink-and-you'll-miss-it spoilers for the stevenbomb leak.

Pearl didn’t need to greet the returning negotiating party herself to know the outcome. She hadn’t even needed to go with them, though she’d wanted to, for Rose’s sake, and wanted even more after she’d been forbidden to.  The vote had been carried on the grounds that it was unwise to have the entire Crystal Gem leadership at the negotiations in the event of Homeworld treachery.  Pearl suspected that the true reason was that her presence was, in some ways, even more antagonising to Homeworld than Rose’s or Garnet’s: a pearl who talked to Diamonds like she was actually a person too.  It went against the very order of things.

And yet, it was _because_ she was a pearl who talked to Diamonds, was talked _at_ by Diamonds, that she’d known, as soon as it was proposed, that this latest round of negotiations would prove just as futile as every single previous attempt.  Centuries of living - no, not living, what she’d had back then couldn’t be called a life - of _existing_ at the foot of the oldest Diamond of all gave her insights that no other gem could lay claim to.  Most gems never met their Diamond.  They saw from afar, if at all.  Pearl had seen up close, and behind closed doors, she and the other Diamond pearls forgotten ornaments while arguments were had and jokes made. She knew.

Diamonds were brilliant, yes, as brilliant as their cuts, but they were also just as rigid.  They were fractious and often petty, not just towards their underlings but each other, yet bore each other some measure of consideration, even affection that they permitted to no others.  White was curious but aloof.  Yellow was orderly and demanding.  Blue was creative but stern.  Pink was charismatic and hedonistic.

And they were all, all four of them, so very, very prideful.

Each of them was a collector too, of some sort or another.  That was the crux of the problem here and now, why this conflict wasn’t going to be resolved by diplomacy, however much they - and Rose, especially - wished it might. White hoarded planets, it was true, but Her true interest lay in knowledge, history, and not just the history of their own people, of Gems, but of older, stranger things.  Yellow loved her toys.  Her armoury was a sight to behold, of course, but she truly adored technology, gadgetry, especially anything that could do the job of a gem just as well, or better.  Blue preferred art - murals, statues, buildings, music and more - and the artisans who made them.  She shared White’s interest in history too, to some extent, but sought songs and stories and fables where White preferred facts and relics.  

Pink was too new to say for certain what her primary collection would be, but if Pearl had to guess, she would have said people.

Not just gems, but _people_ , and all sorts of other living things.  Rare gems.  Defective ones.  Flora.  Fauna.  Even the ‘humans’ that inhabited this planet.  She didn’t have many yet, in her collection, but Pink Diamond was incredibly attached to those she did.  She lavished them with a kind of attention she thought was kindness.

That’s what it came down to.  They were _hers_.  It was _all_ hers, the Earth and everything on it, every Gem that intrigued her that could be bought or stolen or made.  And Pink, in her Diamond’s pride, with her Diamond’s presumption, ruled by her pettiness and her _petulance_ , would never let any of it go.

Pearl knew her Diamonds, knew them all too well.  But she also knew Rose Quartz, and that the truth was the last thing she’d want to hear right now.  It was the last thing she needed.  Pink was Rose’s Diamond.  Rose needed to hope that she could change.  Rose needed _hope_.

And that was why, when Rose entered the small, private alcove, cut from the living stone of the mountain that served their current base, and shut the door behind her, Pearl didn’t say any of that.  Instead, she watched as Rose’s shoulders slumped, her head dipped, her face fell.

Pearl held out her arms.

“Rose.”

Rose sighed but didn’t hesitate, coming forward so that Pearl could wrap her arms around her, as far as she could reach, hugging Rose with all the fierceness she could find.  Rose sighed again, and pulled them closer, resting her cheek atop Pearl’s head.  And then, then she was crying, quietly, tremulous breath and trembling body.

Not for the first time, Pearl wished she were bigger, even a little bit, and less of a jumble of hard lines and sharp points.  She wished she could sweep Rose up in the kind of embrace Rose so often gave to her: large, warm and soft.  Safe.  Nothing could hurt her in Rose’s arms.  Rose should be able to have that from Pearl.

But she couldn’t do any of that.  Pearls simply weren’t built that way, fragile, spindly little things.  Instead, she freed a hand and found one of Rose’s larger ones, bringing it around and up to her lips.  She kissed each knuckle in turn, just once, then gently turned Rose’s hand over so she could kiss the palm too, before pressing it to her cheek - more the side of her head, really - and nuzzling into it.

“Pearl-”

“Shh.  Come here.”

Upright, the size difference between them made as many things impractical. Sitting down was often better.  Reclining, better still.  And so she drew Rose over to the far side of the cramped room, and the pile of pillows and blankets and other soft things set aside for those times when Rose affected sleep or sought comfort.  Pearl sat, back braced to the corner, and a gentle tug of their entwined fingers was all it took to convince Rose to join her, reclining half-against the wall and half-against Pearl.  Pearl wrapped her arms around her again, best as she could, laid her head against Rose’s and hummed a nameless, bittersweet little tune she judged appropriate for the mood.

You became very good at that kind of thing when you were a pearl.  Music and mood, to suit, to change, to develop.  She couldn’t bring herself to rue the purpose-built talent now, nor the hard-won knowledge behind it, not when she could use them to comfort someone she truly did care about.

Rose settled quickly, her tears stopping with a heavy sigh that stilled her body too.  Pearl continued to hum, and occupied herself with beginning the long process of gently untangling some of her wild, beautiful hair.  Pearl wasn’t very good at comforting with words.  She wasn’t very good with words at all, really.  It was hard to develop an extensive repertoire or the confidence to use it when, for most of her life, she’d only been able to speak when spoken to.  

But Pearl had found, over the decades, that Rose simply being there with her, when she was upset, even if Rose didn’t say a single word, helped immeasurably.  The same applied in reverse, Rose had assured her.  Pearl could only hope it was true, because she wasn’t sure what else she could offer that might help.

Another sigh, and Rose pulled away, sitting up and rubbing her downcast eyes clear.

“She wouldn’t listen,” Rose murmured.  “None of them would!  It was like... talking to the void.”

It seemed extremely appropriate and likely counterproductive to say ‘I told you so’, so Pearl didn’t.  She must not have been quite quick enough to school her expression, however, when Rose’s head came back up.

“Don’t you dare say ‘I told you so’,” Rose snapped, and it was only through practice and force of will that Pearl didn’t flinch or immediately begin to stammer out an apology.  “I thought we were getting through to Her!  We brought her gifts made by some of our human allies, and She was so _pleased_.  But then She wanted to know where She could get _more_.  And when I told Her that She couldn’t, because Her latest project was destroying the forest the humans relied on to make them, She asked where she could get _them_ instead.  The humans!”

Her frustration was evident in her voice, the flush to her cheeks, the way her raised hands spasmed and clenched for a second before she caught herself and ran them through her hair.  It was a hard enough thing to realise that your Diamond, the radiant paragon of perfection who had given you life and purpose, was a petty, arbitrary and thoughtlessly cruel despot when you _weren’t_ trying to make peace with them.

Rose had known, of course, what the Diamonds were before Pearl had even dared think the seditious thoughts.  Survival, for a pearl, meant believing yourself when you said you loved your owner, meant keeping your thoughts in check so nothing other than that truth could slip out.  But Pearl, _having_ survived, knew now, knew more and better than Rose did and hopefully ever would, what a Diamond was.  And yet, even now, even _knowing_ , she _still_ found herself taken by wayward pangs of longing, listening to the quiet voice inside that said _it wasn’t all that bad really, was it?_

“Did she even consider the compromise?” Pearl asked.

It was more than they had wanted to offer, and more than Pearl personally thought Homeworld deserved.  The Crystal Gems would stop raiding all Homeworld outposts and cease all anti-Diamond propaganda.  The Prime Kindergarten would remain in operation, with a second site for gem production - a better site than the Beta - to be agreed upon after five hundred years.  In exchange for that, freedom for all Crystal Gems and any gem who subsequently made it to Earth.  Protection of the humans and the bulk of the Earth’s environment, flora and fauna.  Control of the Communications Array, Sky Arena and Galaxy Warp.  

Rose shook her head.

“No.  She just… _laughed,_ like I’d done some kind of amusing trick.”  Rose sighed again, shoulders slumping.  “All that work, for nothing.”

Pearl may have considered the work itself, the proposal, the meetings, a waste from the outset.  But the work itself wasn’t what was important here.  Nor had it been any of the other times Rose had tried to make her Diamond see reason.  It was important because it was _Rose_ actually being free to be who she truly was: not a ruthless Homeworld general, but kind, forgiving, loving person who always tried to see the best in people, whether they were mouthy little pearls or arrogant rarities.

“It wasn’t for _nothing_ ,” Pearl said firmly, taking Rose’s hand again.  “We said we would pursue every possible option for a peaceful solution.  That’s what we’re doing.  We try - _you_ try, in good faith, even knowing you’ll probably be rejected and that _I’ll_ sit here and smugly tell you that I _knew_ it would happen-” Rose’s lips quirked upwards ever so slightly, and she squeezed Pearl’s hand.  Pearl squeezed back in kind. “You try and _keep_ trying because that’s who you are.  It’s important for everyone to know that you’re different.   _We’re_ different.  We all are.”

Rose blinked, and Pearl realised that she was on the verge of tears again.

“Whatever would I do without you, my Pearl?” Rose whispered.

Even now, even after they’d fought together, been together, _loved_ together for centuries, the reverent way Rose said ‘my Pearl’ never failed to make Pearl’s chest feel five sizes too small to contain the rush and surge of her feelings.  It was so wonderful that she found it hard to bear, sometimes.  Today was one; she felt a blush rise on her cheeks and found a sudden and pressing interest in the fringe of one of the cushions beneath them.

“Lose all of your maps and live in absolute squalor, I’m sure,” she retorted, and was unsurprised when a soft, warm hand cupped her chin and gently tilted it upwards.

“None of that, my knight,” Rose said, as gentle as her touch. “You’re more than that.  Especially to me.”

“As you wish, my lady.”  

At Rose’s disapproving ‘tsk’, Pearl rolled her eyes but smiled anyway.  Then she drew herself up, enough to free her from Rose’s hand and to meet her eyes on the level, undaunted and unafraid. She tipped her head slightly, still not breaking eye contact; a courtesy between equals.

“ _My love_.”

It was worth it - always, _always_ worth it - to say the words and see Rose’s eyes, her entire face light up with delight and wonder.  It was still so novel to have a word that conveyed the feelings they had, new and confusing and profound as they were.  Love.   _I_ love.  My love.  Our love.

Pearl doubted it would ever get old.

She had only a moment to appreciate those starry eyes and flushed cheeks before Rose’s lips quirked, the only warning given before launching one of her dastardly sneak attacks.  In short order, Pearl found herself pounced upon, pushed back flat against the blankets and covered in kisses that left her breathless and laughing and trying (and largely failing) to return them.  When she finally managed to connect properly, tangling both hands in silken pink hair for leverage, Rose’s hum of approval resonated through every photon in her body.  Pearl closed her eyes and drank her in, the warmth of her, her softness, her scent, her gentleness and her strength, and struggled against the sweet, siren desire to lose herself completely in Rose, and for Rose to be lost within her.

They parted for a brief, breathless moment, and Pearl could see the same desire and struggle there, writ large across Rose’s face, and the question in her eyes.  Pearl let her actions speak for themselves, pulling Rose back down into the fiercest kiss she could muster, and then letting herself surrender.

It wasn’t long at all before Rainbow Quartz was there, lounging as if she’d never left, and filled with all of their misgivings, their laughter and their love.


End file.
